VT-x/AMD-V Work-Around For VirtualBox?

virtualbox virtual-machine virtualization opensuse parallels

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Solution 1

From what I can tell that motherboard should just automatically enable AMD-V if your processor supports it (which yours does).

Perhaps ensure no other virtualization engines are running at the same time (ie: Parallels), as they may be keeping the (AMD-V) VT sub-system busy, and so VirtualBox can't use it.

Solution 2

The BIOS may be obscure on where the VT-x/AMD-V is enabled, for example, no where in an Asus M5A88 mobo with AMD FX6100 cpu does it even remotely resemble any mention of VT-x/AMD-V.

One very helpful blog I found mentioned to look in Northbrige (under the chipset), nothing there either however, in the CPU Configuration there is a selection "Secure Virtual Machine Mode" it was disabled, once enabled and rebooted, Ubuntu 11.10 64bit desktop installed without issue in Virtual Box.

You can check to see if it is enabled if you get an output via terminal

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "vmx svm"

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Itai

Digital camera guru, Travel Photographer, Web Developer and Software Engineer. Travel has always been my passion and it made me discover photography when I accidentally took a breath-taking photo while on a long vacation from my Software Engineering job where I was working already for 5 years on image processing, multimedia and real-time film special effects. Launched Neocamera in 2005 and later went to work for a number of high technology companies including a search engine which rimes with oogle. Eventually grew my consulting side-line into its own company and diversified into web development and technology for telephony, pharmaceutical and banking. Taught photography and lead Photography Tours somewhere in between all that.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Itai over 1 year
After converting a Parallels VM to VirtualBox, the converted VM still does not run. VirtualBox says:

VT-x/AMD-V hardware acceleration has been enabled, but is not operational.... Please ensure you have VT-x/AMD-V enabled in the BIOS of your host computer

Only I have no such option in my BIOS even after upgrading to the latest firmware yesterday. Turning VT-x/AMD-V Acceleration off in the VM Settings does not work since VirtualBox re-enables it again automatically.

The question is how to get this VM to run?
1. Can VirtualBox really be make to run the VM without VT-x/AMD-V acceleration? The same machine works in Parallels, so it is obviously possible on the same H/W.
2. Can the VT-x/AMD-V technology be enabled some other way? My CPU is an AMD Phenom II X4 945 and the motherboard is an ECS A785GM-M.
All this is running under OpenSUSE 11.2 64-bit with VirtualBox 4.0.4.12 and Parallels Desktop 4 (which is why I am stuck at 11.2 and trying to get VirtualBox to work).
- Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 almost 13 years
  
  From what I can tell the motherboard should just automatically enable AMD-V if you processor supports it (which yours does). Have you ensured no other virtualization engines are running at the same time (ie: Parallels)?
- Itai almost 13 years
  
  Interesting! Parallels is not running but there may be a daemon in the background. Any idea how to check and disable it temporarily? BTW, simply killing the Parellels processes did not work (the processes are gone but VirtualBox still complains).
- Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 almost 13 years
  
  Assuming you're using Parallels for Mac, then not I specifically, as I'm not a Mac guy, so I can't spew step-by-step directions. :) Perhaps ask that as another question if a similar one can't be found on here?
- Itai almost 13 years
  
  Parallels for OpenSUSE 11.2 (Linux) running Windows 7 64-bit as the Guest oS. So, I'm not a Mac guy either.
- Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 almost 13 years
  
  Sorry, I'm drunk apparently, I missed the last line. :)
- Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 almost 13 years
  
  Cool, I'll stick that in as an answer. :)